He said the hotel calls for a renovation, saying it “doesn’t suit the demand” by urban travelers.

“We think that’s a real drag on the city,” Reilly said.

Jeff Vaughan, spokesman for City Center, said he did not know what brand may affiliate with the hotel. He said City Center wants to begin work on the building in the first quarter of 2018 but he did not have a timeline for the building’s redevelopment and reopening.

Built in 1982, the nine-story, 224-room hotel opened under the Hilton flag and was the top downtown resting place for visitors for years. Like much of the office and retail businesses around it, however, the hotel’s fortunes waned. Occupancy dipped below 30 percent and the Hilton brand was dropped. The current owners bought it in 2007 for $5.5 million. Business at the Holiday Inn improved somewhat after PPL Center opened, bringing with it competition in the attached 170-room Renaissance Hotel.

Barthwal said the closing of the hotel should not have too great an impact on travelers to the city, noting the hotel’s annual occupancy rate was between 36 percent and 40 percent.

City Center also plans an apartment building with ground-floor retail on a vacant parcel on the same block of Hamilton Street.